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Ethnic Investors and Communication

9/3/2014

A Spectrem Group study of ethnic investors shows that among the affluent African-American, Hispanic and Asian communities, there is a greater desire to communicate with advisors through social media and texting. Even with regulations still in place in some communications, the ethnic communities are reaching out to their advisors far more than the general population of investors.

Using Social Media and Mobile Technology in Financial Decisions, the second report in Spectrem’s Ethnic Segmentation Series, details the percentage of affluent ethnic investors who have already or want to communicate with their advisors through social media.

Investors in the three aforementioned ethnic groups were asked whether they had ever communicated with their financial advisor through social media sites or texting. The percentages were compared to the answers given by the general population of investors.

Nineteen percent of African-American affluent investors have already used texting to “speak’’ to their advisor. This technological advance is being allowed now as long as the advisors have the proper tools to retain their text messages. Fifteen percent of Hispanics and 14 percent of Asians have used texting to get to their financial advisor, while only 12 percent of the general population of affluent investors have done so.

There is very little contact made between investors and advisors on social media, but ethnic investors are trying. Six percent of affluent Hispanic investors have made contact through Facebook, as have 5 percent of Asians. Five percent of Hispanic investors have joined with their advisors on LinkedIn. All of these percentage are far above the general population of investors, who report almost no contact attempts through social media.

Even when asked if they want to be able to text their advisor, ethnic investors are more interested. Twenty-five percent of Hispanics, 24 percent of African-Americans and 16 percent of Asians want to be able to communicate with their financial advisor through texting, while only 14 percent of the general population have that desire.

Another form of communication that exists today and is very popular in the corporate world is website videos. Forty-seven percent of affluent Asian investors say they watch videos on financial websites, and 44 percent of Hispanics say they do so. Only 35 percent of the general population of affluent investors has gone the video route for financial information.